Peoples Network

reader 2 reader

All roads leadeth

byPeter Turnbull

I have seldom had the misfortune to make such a poor choice in the library! I got this because it was set in York and I know the area quite well, plus it was available in audio CD format so I could listen in the car. This is one of a set of Hennessy and Yellich mysteries (according to Amazon) and I can tell you I won't be seeking out any of the other titles. The characters lack any kind of depth. Their individual back stories were so sketchily dealt with it was impossible to feel you knew any of them. The crimes themselves were solved by a series of fortunate, totally unbelievable circumstances rather than by the usual sort of twists and turns that make detective fiction worthwhile. There are glaring editorial oversights (eg, the pathologist makes the same speech about the pressure to come up with an exact time of death after the second killing as she did after the first.) And we are kept in a strange sense of anticipation while the author teases us with the identity of Hennessy's love interest, which is obviously the female pathologist, but Turnbull seems to think calling her 'the lady' for a whole episode while they're enjoying a walk in the country lends a frisson of mystery and romance. I beg to differ. Don't bother.